April 26 2019

Touch (Five Minute Friday)

Of my four grandparents, the only one I recall meeting was my paternal grandmother. She did not have what I would call the grandma touch. I have at least two vivid memories that stand out to me when I think of her. It might be important to note that she was a widow for a few years by the time these memories took place.

When we were teens my uncle and aunt would bring my grandma down to visit with us for the day while they drove to a different town to visit with my aunt’s family for Christmas. Our city was on the way between where they started out and where they needed to end up so it worked out pretty well.

On this particular day, my mother was preparing a turkey dinner with all the fixings. This may well have been more of a meal than we normally would have been able to afford, but because grandma was coming it needed to be special. And to us it was. I distinctly remember my grandma asking my mother what we were having for dinner. My mom told her we were having the turkey dinner with all the fixings that normally went with it. Grandma rudely answered that she couldn’t stand turkey. Well, mom being the person she was and trying to make everyone happy, quickly pulled a foil-wrapped ham out of the freezer. Now mind you, this was well before the microwave was a common household appliance, so the only way to thaw it was to bake it in the oven in the hope that it would thaw enough to cut a few slices and serve them along with everything else as though it had been planned that way all along.

This might not sound so bad to you, but it probably messed up the family food budget for the next while. You see, we were poor. There were six of us in the family and at least three of us four kids were in our early teens by then. We were likely scheduled to make several meals from that turkey and the ham was probably being saved for some week well into the future. We didn’t eat ham dinners very often. So the fact that once meat had thawed it couldn’t be frozen again meant we would be eating a lot of meat in the next few days before it could spoil. Once the meat was cooked, it could be frozen, but it might well end up getting freezer burn and wouldn’t be the same as it should have been, to begin with.

The second memory was after I was married and had my first born who was about eighteen months at the time. My older sister and I had taken my son and my brother’s son who were just 18 days apart in age up to visit my grandmother in the old-age home she lived in. When we walked through the door, she took one look at me and said, “Karen, how did you get so fat?” I’m pretty sure I said, “Gee grandma, I don’t know. I guess I ate one too many desserts and, poof!” The entire time we were there she was nervous about the boys getting into things. Now we had my sister and I to divide and conquer so to speak, so they weren’t going to be causing any trouble. Besides, they were very well behaved.

I also remember that when mom would send her the 5×7 photos we had taken each fall at school for Christmas, that she would send us back the ones from the year before, simply switching them out of the same frames. Now that I am older, I understand this was likely her way of not having to deal with clutter, but it always set wrong with me. As I said, she just didn’t have the grandma touch.

Once I dug a little deeper into her genealogy, I began to understand a little more about why she may have been the way she was. It seems that when her Irish father and English mother got married, her mother’s family disowned their daughter and later left her only $1 in their will so she couldn’t contest it. So she never really got to know her maternal grandparents.

Then, her Irish grandparents listed themselves as widowed in the 1900 census although they were clearly both still alive and even living in the same county, though in different townships. In her grandfather’s will, he mentioned that he did not want his wife to get the customary one-third widow’s right as she had kept all the money the children had earned while growing up. He also didn’t want his oldest daughter to have anything either because she was mean to him. Family stories say he was a drinker and she was not a nice person. This might or might not be the case, but after learning all this it was much easier to forgive my grandmother for not having the touch. How could she? She never had the example of what a kind caring grandmother was supposed to be like. I figure she did the best she could with the hand she was dealt. By the time we came along, she had already been a grandmother to my uncle’s three kids for about ten years or so and maybe they got a different sort of grandmother out of the deal, who knows? My dad was so obviously not her favorite child, but that is a story for another post.

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!
The prompt this week is: Touch
The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.

Category: Family, Five Minute Friday, Genealogy | 1 Comment on Touch (Five Minute Friday)
December 27 2018

Review: Let’s Roam App & ScavengerHunt.com

Last year, for Christmas, we got a voucher for a scavenger hunt adventure. It took us an entire year and an expiration date looming over our heads to finally get a chance to use it. The time we finally got all of us together with a couple of hours free to use it, was on Christmas Day this year (actually about 7:30-9:30pm). That’s what happens when you have four adults living in three households and two cities with five jobs and lots of other commitments and responsibilities between us to have to work around our various schedules. Something to consider when giving the gift of an experience that has an expiration date, just saying.

voucher

I’m not worried about posting this scan of the voucher here because it has already been used and is about to expire anyway. This is what we were given, so first, we had to do some digging to figure out how to redeem it. I have seen tons of ads for the company on Facebook over the last few months. All their ads and website seem more concerned with selling their scavenger hunts than actually redeeming the voucher after someone presents it to you. To be fair, that IS their business, but they didn’t make it easy to use the voucher, in my opinion. It isn’t as intuitive as they seem to think, but we muddled through and made it happen thanks to our twenty-something kids. We all had to download the Let’s Roam App (this could have been a problem if we had limited data or space for additional apps on our phones). We also had to make sure our phones were fully charged before we started or bring battery packs with us (we did some of both). The screen is on constantly unless you turn it off to save battery.

I was disappointed that there are only 2 choices for hunts in our city (Indianapolis). I have to say that after living here all my life I had never walked around the areas the hunt had us exploring, so that was pretty cool. It was cold and I’m not supposed to be walking that much in my walking boot, but I did it anyway. The ads I saw online with sales for the holiday were priced at about $11 per person. The hunt we chose was rated as hard, 1.7 miles, focused on history and 1.5 hours long. Given all that, I suppose this is a fair price for entertainment, but not exactly cheap. The teacher in me thinks that fourth graders studying Indiana History would love this interactive activity. The cheapskate in me thinks next time we could save money with fewer tickets and sharing the phones because two would have been plenty.

Basically, after everyone gets into the hunt and on the team, they have to choose which role they want to take in the adventure. I chose to be the photographer. These screenshots were all taken after the fact because it was too cold to worry about that while we were doing the hunt.

I have to say the app is very slick looking and worked well on our various phones, so no problems there.

These are the photos we took on my phone during the hunt. Many were taken to fulfill specific tasks that were asked of us during the game. (Fast food, blackbird, foreign currency, black and white dog, etc.)

We chose a very peaceful time to do this hunt. There was almost nobody out in downtown on Christmas night, so we had the run of the area without worrying about other people wondering what we were doing. There was almost no traffic, and the weather, though cold at about 40 degrees F, was tolerable with our winter coats and gloves on (Texting Gloves for the win!)

Would we do it again? Probably, if all of us were healthy and not gimpy like I was. We would likely choose to do it on the spur of the moment instead of racing the calendar trying to fit it into our already tight schedules so as not to waste the money that was spent on the gift. Now that we’ve done it once, it wouldn’t be nearly as intimidating. That is why I wanted to post screenshots and such for you here. If you need help, give me a holler, I can try to walk you through it.

I’d like to see more tours offered in a city the size of Indianapolis. I would like to see more handicap-friendly options too. I would seriously consider using this as a way to see a new city on a vacation or weekend getaway. It would also be nice to see driving tours too, and maybe they do have them, but just not here.

Have you ever tried something like this? Tell us about it in the comments. I’d love to get other recommendations on sightseeing in your own city.

 

Category: Family, Review, Travel | Comments Off on Review: Let’s Roam App & ScavengerHunt.com
December 20 2018

Writing An Annual Family Newsletter

Holiday Newsletter

I penned my first official holiday newsletter in December 1994 and let me tell you it was a sad little thing. I typed it on one of the school’s computers in a huge font with some really bad clip art, and I was so proud of myself for actually writing a page and a half. I printed it out in color on a dot matrix printer and most likely copied it in black and white because color just wasn’t a possibility for us back then. It was just meant to go inside the Christmas cards as a way of updating everyone on what was happening in our family. I’m not sure if I didn’t have the nerve to write another one for years or if I lost a couple, but the next one I can find a copy of wasn’t written until 2001.

I have been very consistent from 2001 on only missing 2004 (a year after losing my mother, I just didn’t have it in me) and 2008 (not sure why). I used preprinted holiday-themed stationery for the letters between 2001 and 2007 which kept the printing costs down. I remember having prints of a photo of the boy printed to include in cards one year, but that was pricey too. In 2006, things changed because it was the first holiday season after I began working in the print shop. One of the perks was knowing what the possibilities were and getting a super cheap price on printing the photos in sheets and in color then cutting them apart to include with the letter.

I found a great little template on Microsoft Publisher that would change the look of this holiday newsletter forever. The little newsletter I affectionately dubbed Beidelman Bits was born in December 2009. Publisher let me insert photos and wrap the text around them and divide the newsletter into sections to cover each of the four of us and what was going on with us. By that time, the kids were teens and I had to resort to finding photos on Facebook in some cases because much of their lives took place away from the home and family life of days gone by.

I discovered really quickly that a picture really was worth a thousand words and began writing the letters by gathering the various photos I would use and writing the words to tell about the photos to fill in around them. I may have gotten lazy with the writing or carried away with the number of photos I would include, but they looked good and many of the relatives that received them each year commented on how much they looked forward to getting them and enjoyed reading them each year.

I always included the ages of the kids and what grade they were in at school. I tried to keep everyone updated on what activities we were all participated in and what family trips we took. I even included news of pets and the occasional photos of the pets.

I tried getting the kids to each write a paragraph or two about their year, but that just didn’t go over well with them. I usually didn’t let any of the family read what I had written until after it was in the mail.

I chose which kid to highlight on the front page by who had graduated that year from either high school or college and made sure to include plenty of photos of course. When they went off to college, I included the school mascot and the kids’ mailing addresses. One year my son got a package out of the blue with a Big Bang Theory TV show t-shirt from a cousin of mine who knew from reading my newsletters that my son was a physics major and would like the show.

I really had trouble scrounging up photos of the kids once they were away at college, and the news was not as plentiful about them and what they were doing. Now that they no longer either one live with us, I wonder if I should even be including the kids in the newsletter anymore. There is really very little to report. We don’t hear from them often and other than working hard and paying off student loans and trying to make ends me while “adulting” there is not much to report.

We still have the pets and our trips to report on, oh and there was that little matter of being unemployed for seven months. Which reminds me, since I no longer have a job at a print shop, the color printing has become cost prohibitive again. Last year we went through two complete sets of cartridges for our inkjet printer to get the newsletters printed in color and that was still considerably cheaper than printing it at any of the local printers because they really overcharge for color printing. I’m not sure how we will handle the printing thing this year. The photos just really don’t have the same effect when printed in grayscale, but the budget doesn’t allow for very many options. We could almost buy a color laser printer for what it would cost to print fifty two-sided color copies at any print shop. The inkjet printer just doesn’t do that great a job, but it is still better than not having color at all.

I am beginning to wonder if I shouldn’t just email the newsletter out, but a number of the older family members would never see it then and I am told that many people have saved all of the newsletters to either reread or compare the photos from year to year.

As I look back on the newsletters which I keep in a binder in sheet protectors I can really see in the early years how my computer skills progressed. In the later years, mostly the only things that progressed were my photo cropping and placing skills as I added more and more photos to each year’s issue.

If you have any suggestions, tips or know of a low-cost printing solution, please let me know. Do you write an annual holiday letter? I wish more people did. Usually, all we get are Christmas cards with a signature or a printed name inside. All that tells me is that the person is most likely still alive to send the cards out and that I haven’t been cut from the list yet. I’d love to get news of what is happening in their lives or even see pictures of the kids, grandkids, and pets. In some cases, I’ve never seen their houses so that would be cool too.

If you thought this was going to be out newsletter posted for the whole world to see, sorry to disappoint you. If you are one of the chosen fifty or so households that regularly receive our newsletters and your address has changed, please shoot me an email or text me your new address, please. I save the ones that are returned and sometimes mail the missed year out the next year so you will have it because I can’t bring myself to throw them away. Invariably I get one or two back each year no matter how carefully I check the address list.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Category: Family, Writing | Comments Off on Writing An Annual Family Newsletter
December 13 2018

Recipe: Macaroni & Hotdog Casserole

Macaroni & Hotdog Casserole

In our family, this recipe is called trash. Yes, that’s right trash. Not because it is bad, but because it isn’t. You see, my mother-in-law used to run a daycare from her home, which just happens to be the hose we currently live in. She was old school. She cooked from scratch and did so on occasion even for the daycare kids. One day the kids asked Mrs. Beidelman what they were having for lunch. Feeling ornery or overwhelmed or just playful perhaps, she told them she was serving trash for lunch. After they saw it and tasted it, they asked if they could have trash again the next day. This is how the meal became known as trash in our family. The rest of the world might choose to call it Mac and Cheese or some other traditional type name, but not our family. We eat trash, and by golly, we love it!

Macaroni & Hotdog Casserole (TRASH)
3 cups elbow macaroni
½ lb. Kraft NY State extra sharp cheddar cheese
½ lb. thinly sliced hotdogs
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 Tbsp. Butter (1/2 stick)
¼ cup flour
2 cups milk (I use skim milk, but whole or 2% would work too)
¼ tsp. black pepper
½ tsp. Salt (I never use salt when cooking)

Topping:
½ cup bread crumbs
2 Tbsp. margarine

Cook macaroni as directed on package. Melt butter, add flour, slowly add milk, and cook until thickened. Add Parmesan and cheddar cheeses (slice the cheddar) and cook until melted. Pour over noodles and hotdogs in a large casserole dish. Add topping. Bake at 350F for 30-45 minutes until bubbly.
(A Jackie Beidelman Original Recipe)

My family always doubles this recipe and we make it in a 9 x 13 metal cake pan.

I also cheat on the topping and often just sprinkle liberally with bread crumbs, seasoned works fine if you have them, plain if not. You can make it p ahead of time and put it in the refrigerator overnight if you want, but if it is cold you will need longer to cook it.

It works great as leftovers, I usually sprinkle some milk on top to make sure it doesn’t dry out while reheating.

Category: Family, Recipes | Comments Off on Recipe: Macaroni & Hotdog Casserole
November 15 2018

Holiday Organizing

Holiday Organizing

As we approach the holiday season, many of you will be decorating your homes for the holidays. Over the years, I have learned a thing or two about getting organized for the holidays.

Years ago, I got some green and red tubs to put away the decorations after the holidays were over so they would be easy to locate in the attic or basement. Before then, we used an assortment of cardboard boxes to store our decorations. The tubs were larger and had nice handles which made fewer trips up and down the attic or basement steps and the handles made them easier and safer to carry.

Believe it or not, we have a black and orange tub to store the fall and Halloween decorations and a pastel yellow tub to store spring and Easter decorations. Yep, these are obvious when stacked among other tubs and easy to find or send someone else to get.

This year as you get out your decorations think about those that you choose not to put out and consider WHY you aren’t using them this year. Maybe they just don’t suit your tastes or style of decorating anymore. Maybe they belong to your kids and you need to sort those into a tub for each of your children so they will have a tub of their own to start their decoration collection with when they move into a home of their own. We have a few ornaments that are very breakable family treasures that we rarely put on our tree because we don’t want to take a chance on breaking them. As I am writing this and thinking of those ornaments, it occurs to me that these will have no meaning to our kids because they were never a part of our holiday decorating. I am now asking myself what I am saving them for. This is the year we either use it or lose it. If it doesn’t fit neatly into the tubs we already have to store our decorations in, then we will need to declutter some things so we can keep others.

Another quick tip is to attach a list of what is in each box or at least label them (ornaments, garland, lights, nativity, etc.). You could use double-sided tape to attach a sheet protector and then slide the lists in and out as needed while keeping it clean, dry and protected.

We have done this every few years and we got to the point where we realized the ornaments our kids were getting each year were over-crowding our tubs and the kids needed their own, so I waited for the lovely red and green tubs to go on deeply discounted sale and bout one for each of them. Then we took a huge black permanent marker and wrote each kid’s name on the lid and tub their ornaments would now be stored in.

If that kid didn’t take the time to put their decorations on the tree then they didn’t get used. The kids were also in charge of taking their ornaments off the tree each year and putting them away in the boxes they came in to keep them nice. This is always something of a trip down memory lane as they remember the things that were going on in their lives during those years. Their great-grandmother and grandma each chose ornaments for each of them every year. The ornaments were usually Hallmark ornaments. Occasionally if we found an ornament that had particular meaning for one of them we would also get them an ornament. Because the kids were in charge of hanging their own ornaments each year, they remember them and will have those memories for the rest of their lives. I would tell the kids as they packed their ornaments away that first year that they should also put any ornament they personally made in their tubs and let me know if there was anything, in particular, they wanted to keep that had special meaning to them but didn’t specifically belong to them.

Last year, we never got around to putting the tree up and it was oddly sad not seeing it, but very nice not having to put it away either. It was the only year I can ever remember not having decorated the house for the holiday season.

Now we don’t get carried away, we usually just set up the artificial tree and decorate it, hang the stockings and set out some decorations on the mantel and tabletops in the living room. We don’t have tons of stuff and it can usually be put up or taken down in an afternoon or evening. I like the get it set up over Thanksgiving weekend and Hubby doesn’t like to have it taken down before the twelfth day of Christmas for some reason. I usually like it down sometime around new years, but I usually let him keep it up longer.

So when it comes to organizing your holiday decorations you need to set aside a time and add it to your calendar to do the decorating and un-decorating. You also need to make a list of things you will need like wrapping paper, tape, bows, gift boxes or whatever you use. Do you need to buy stamps to mail letters or cards? Is your address list current? Do you need to get updated addresses for that cousin that bought a house this year? Schedule in ten or fifteen minutes a day to do something to make this year’s holiday season go smoother. Do you have the recipes you will make gathered up? Have you been adding the non-perishable items to your shopping list each week so the grocery budget doesn’t explode the end of December? What are the things you can do ahead of time to save yourself the added stress later?

Do you know where you are going on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day? What days do you and your family members have off work? Are there programs you need to attend? Add them all to your calendar. Do you need to make reservations for dinner somewhere? How about tickets to the show or event you want to attend? Do you plan to donate your time ringing a bell, wrapping gifts, shopping for those less fortunate, serving meals at a soup kitchen? Add it all to your calendar. It would be a shame to miss something you want to do because it wasn’t on your calendar and in the business of the season it slipped your mind.

If you take the time to make your lists and check them twice over the next week or two, you will be amazed at how much smoother everything goes and how much less stressed you feel and how much more enjoyable the season can be. You owe it to yourself to get organized for the holidays. Yes, YOU are worth it!

In case you missed these recent holiday related posts, be sure to take a minute to read them by clicking the links below.

Are the Holidays a Burden?
Saving for the Holidays

If you have been reading this blog very long it probably isn’t a surprise that I am pre-writing some of the November Thursday posts so I can focus on writing a 50,000-word novel in 30 days (NaNoWriMo). Stay tuned and add yourself to the email list in the near the upper right of this page so you can be notified by email when I post something new and can read it right in your email if you choose.

Category: Family, Organizing, Planning | Comments Off on Holiday Organizing